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The Work of School 
Improvement League and 
Suggestions for the Tutu re 



State of Maine 
Educational Department 



Copies of this document will be sent 
free on application to 

W. W. STETSON, 
State Supt. of Public Schools. 

Augusta, Maine. 



u » ot Q, 



5 V 



z Work of me School Im- 
provement Leagues of 
Maine. 



1. The Leagues have developed 
higher standards. 

The School Improvement Leagues 
have been organized, in more than a 
thousand Maine communities. They 
have emphasized in each of these the 
fact that the local school is entitled to 
the best physical surroundings, to a 
good working equipment of books and 
apparatus and ic an attractive school- 
room. 

2. The Leagues have brought the 
home and the school nearer to each 
other. 

The Leagues stand for the idea that 
educatioin concerns br»th the home and 
the school. They have sought to join 
these two in' educational endeavor. 
They have succeeded. Wherever you 
find a league there you will find 
the teacher, the parent and the pupil 
acting together for the improvement of 
school conditions. As a result, in these 
communities there is a better under- 
standing of the school on the part of 
the parents and a more sympathetic 



4 WHAT THE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 

interest in the home on the part of the 
teacher. These are the conditions 
which will make our educational insti- 
tutions equal to thei" important tasks. 

3. The Leagues have developed a 
sense of responsibility. 

Modern school children have been in 
danger of losing the appreciation of the 
value of personal responsibility. Boys 
and girls must be taught to help them- 
selves. In this way only can they be- 
come self-reliant men and women. 
The Leagues ha/ve led the pupils of the 
schools to accomplish things through 
their own efforts. They have taught 
the value of improvements. They have 
fostered a care for public property. 
They have increased loyalty to the 
local school. They have made educa- 
tion seem more desirable because they 
have helped to show its cost. 

4. The Leagues have increassd 
school attendance. 

In order that one may become active- 
ly interested hi any enterprise he must 
be set at work for that enterprise. 
The Leagues have shown the pupils 
ways in which ihey can work for their 
schools. This has engendered loyalty 
and Interest. The attendance in Maine 
schools has recently shown a most re- 
markable growth both in numbers and 



LEAGUES OF MAINE HATE BONE 5 



regularity. Thare can be no question 
but that this is due in part to the in- 
creased interest in the schools felt both 
by pupils and their parents. It is a 
beneficent result of the closer harmony 
that ?s springing- up between the school 
and the home. 

5. The Leagues have magnified the 
common school. 

The common school stands as the 
foundation of all educational institu- 
tions. In Maine it has had an illustri- 
ous career. Our fathers made sacri- 
fices to establish it. Many men of 
worth attribute to it their success. The 
common people rightly regard it as 
their most valued possession. The 
Leagues have worked largely in the 
common school. They have sought to 
improve the quality of its work. They 
have enlarged its importance in the 
minds of pupils and people. They seek 
to keep it alive and prosperous. They 
have quickened the interest of pupils 
and they have brought the attention of 
parents and citizens to its meeds and 
claims. They have made it a stronger 
and more efficient instrumentality. 

6. The Leagues have transformed 
bare, unattractive places of drudgery 
into rooms with homelike conditions. 

A child loves pleasant surroundings. 



b WHAT THK 8CHOOL IMPROVEMENT 

No child should be placed in a dreary, 
depressing environment. The average 
school child spends six hours of each 
school day in the schoolroom. This 
room should be cheery and attractive. 
II should not be furnished in a costly, 
luxurious manner, but should prove 
that simplicity and beauty may be had 
without extravagance. The Leagues 
have curtained windows; they have 
tinted smoky walls; they have fresh- 
ened old furniture and they have 
cleaned untidy floors. They have hung 
pictures; they have provided stands for 
books, flowers and ornaments. These 
things have made the schoolrooms 
homelike and pleasant. Children have 
found their school days brighter be- 
cause of these blessings. School has 
meant more to these children and they 
have enjoyed these things more be- 
cause they had the joy and satisfac- 
tion of helping to provide them. 

7. The Leagues have improved 
school grounds. 

No one likes to see a house sur- 
rounded with untidy grounds. No mat- 
ter how fine the house it cannot appear 
beautiful under these conditions. The 
impression is that the inhabitants 
of such a house must of neces- 



LEAGUES OF MAINE HAVE DONE 7 

sity be uncultured. Many school- 
bouses have forlorn surroundings. Un- 
sightly stumps and rocks cumber the 
grounds. Rickety fences surround 
them. Outhouses loom up gaunt and 
indecorous. Hollow places collect 
pools in wet weather and paths are 
slimy and offensive. No trees or 
shrubs afford protection from the sun, 
or lend their beauty to the scene. 

Against conditions like these the 
Leagues have waged relentless warfare. 
Tbe result has been that lawns have 
been laid out, gardens have been 
planted, trees and shrubs have been 
set, gravel paths have been construct- 
ed, hollows have been filled, outhouses 
have been screened and places hitherto 
forlorn and repulsive have been trans- 
formed into things of beauty. 

In this work civic clubs, granges and 
women's organizations have aided. The 
press of the State has given its help. 
Magazines of national circulation, as 
The Youth's Companion, the Review of 
Reviews and others, have taken up and 
advocated this work throughout the en- 
tire country. 

8. The Leagues have furnished li- 
braries. 

In schools of all classes, but particu- 
larly in country schools, the Leagues 



8 WHAT THE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 

have done a work of great value in 
supplying 1 school libraries. In scores of 
instances these libraries have become, 
in effect, the public and circulating li- 
braries for adults as well as for chil- 
dren. The Leagues themselves hav- 
purchased about a hundred thousand 
volumes for their libraries. They 
have likewise been the medium for dis- 
tributing the benefits of the traveling 
libraries provided by the State. 

Summary, — "What the Leagues have 
done. 

A. Material Results. 

1. Planted over five thousand 
trees. 

2. Purchased a hundred thousand 
books. 

3. Purchased over five hundred 
casts. 

4. Purchased about seven thou- 
sand pictures. 

Miscellaneous improvements im- 
possible to enumerate, for example: 
Graded grounds, tinted schoolroom 
walls, purchased flags, clocks, or- 
gans, maps, charts, window shades and 
school apparatus. 

B. Other Important Results. 

1. They have created a higher 
standard of school equipment. 



LEAGUES OF MAINE HATE DONE 9 

2. They have strengthened the 
harmony between school and 
home. 

3. They have emphasized self- 
help. 

4. They have increased the use- 
fulness of the common school. 

5. They have made school life 
more attractive to youth. 

6. They have cultivated civic 
pride. 

7. They have encouraged a taste 
for good literature. 

What of the Future? 

This pamphlet will reach teachers in 
season to be suggestive of the special 
opportunities offered for spring work. 
It is sent to three classes of teachers 
with a special word to each. 

1. To those teachers who have al- 
ready organized Leagues: 

The importance and value of 
.League work has already been demon- 
strated by you. Many things will oc- 
cur to you that still remain undone for 
your school. Outline a definite plan for 
the accomplishment of one or more of 
these and with your reorganized 
League, at the beginning of a new 
term, give its members the inspiration 
gst a new task. 



10 WHAT THE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 

2. To those teachers who find them- 
selves in schools where Leagues have 
formerly existed: 

The farther improvement in your 
school will depend largely on you, 
since leadership in these matters 
is usually and wisely left ot the 
teacher. The responsibility is all 
the greater since it rests with you 
to determine whether the work favora- 
bly begun shail reach its fulfilment un- 
der your direction. Ascertain what 
your League has already done. If 
there have been mistakes seek to cor- 
rect them. Make plans for some new 
work and these will bring fresh zeal to 
the members. You will find full infor- 
mation relative to the methods of the 
League in the pamphlets named else- 
where. 

3. To those teachers who find them- 
selves in schools where no Leagues 
have ever been organized: 

A special opportunity is yours. You 
have the experience of others as a 
guide. You have a fine field in which 
to begin work. Secure the pamphlets 
elsewhere referred to and begin work 
at once. Call the attention of the su- 
perintendent and people of your com- 
munity to your plans. 

To all teachers who are interested in 
school improvement the suggestion is 



LEAGUES OF MAINB HAVE DONE 11 

made that you secure from the State 
Educational Department the following 
publications: 

1. Library and Art Exchange. 

2. Manual on organizing Leagues. 

3. Evidences of Improvement and 
Work of Leagues. 

4. Improvement of School Buildings 
and Grounds. 

The Youth's Companion, Boston, 
Mass., will send free of charge valuable 
aids to teachers who plan school yard 
improvements. 

Send to Miss Kate MacDonald, Ma- 
chias, Me., for a League Charter appli- 
cation blank. 

It is very important that each League 
should send to the local paper and to 
the State Secretary a record of its 
work. 

The success of the League does not 
depend on the kind or grade of school. 
It will be successful under an enter- 
prising teacher in any school that 
needs improvement. 

The adaptability of the League to 
varying circumstances can hardly be 
more vividly illustrated than by the 
following reports. The first is written 
by the teacher of a small school in the 
Maine wilderness. The second is an 



12 WHAT THE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 

extract from the 1905 town report of 
one of the largest, wealthiest, and most 
populous towns of the State. In these 
and in schools of all intermediate 
classes successful Leagues have been 
conducted. 

Report I. "This league was organ- 
ized on the 25th of last June. We be- 
gan with twenty-five members, all of 
the school, and now have forty-four, all 
of whom are greatly interested in the 
work. This place is located at the 

mouth of the river, on the west 

shore of lake and has eighteen 

dwellings and a number of sporting 
camps. The population is about nine- 
ty, with thirty children of school age. 

The schoolhouse is upon the bank of 
the river, is of logs placed upright and 
is unfinished. The school is supported 
by the State and this is the fourth year 
of its existence. Since the organiza- 
tion of the league the walls of the 
schoolroom have been papered, pictures 
have been contributed, two new school 
desks put in, a second floor of matched 
boards put down and we have ordered 
some curtains and a picture frame. 
Five large, black, pine stumps (one 
eighteen feet high and six in diameter), 
several loads of rocks and a thick 



LEAGUES OF MAINE HAVE DONE 13 

fringe of scrubby bushes have been re- 
moved from the yard, affording us a full 
view of the river, which is the public 
highway used by hundreds of sporting 
people. We trust maple shade trees 
and flower beds will follow. A flag has 
been secured and at the raising we had 
a supper from which we raised a good- 
ly sum. 

Instruction in civic duties is a part of 
our league work, thus preparing us for 
the time when this will be an organized 
plantation." 

Report li. "Each successive year the 
work of the School Improvement 
League holds the attention and inter- 
est of the teachers and pupils. The re- 
ports sent to me from the secretaries of 
the various leagues have been very sat- 
isfactory, showing certainly that the 
members are alive to the interests and 
duties of the organization. In. 
some of the schools considera- 
ble money has been raised during 
the year the largest amount, thirty dol- 
lars, having been collected by the Cen- 
tral school. Each League in the town 
has added quite materially to the im- 
provement of the room by the purchase 
of pictures or of books. When we real- 
ize that the volumes already purchased 



14 WHAT THE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 

by the leagues number several hun- 
dreds and that these books are the best 
that the age affords, we cannot fail to 
see that the work of the league has 
quite a potent influence over the life of 
the child. It is noticeable in all the 
rooms that the best books of the col- 
lection show marks of constant use, and 
often I find some boy or girl who has 
read the same volume several times. 

In this way the children learn to know 
and love the good things in literature, 
and thus is laid the foundation for the 
imbibing- of the best writings of our 
more advanced books. Another influ- 
ence nearly equal to the influence of 
good books is that of good surround- 
ings. 

The work of the league during the 
year in changing the physical condi- 
tions of the schoolroom has ranged all 
the way from the blacking of the stove 
to the adorning of the walls with pic- 
tures. In this connection it seems not 
out of place to call your attention to 
the following statement made by one of 
our leading educational authorities. 
"There is scarcely a sounder principle 
in pedagogy than that care begets care; 
order, order; cleanliness, cleanliness; 
and beauty, beauty. Things conspicu- 



LEAGUES OF MAINE HAVE DONE 15 

cusly good command the respect of 
children, invite their imitation, and in 
ways real, though obscure, sink into 
their souls and mould their being. The 
power of good example in men and wo- 
men no one disputes, but there is pow- 
er akin to it in things, provided they 
embody the better thoughts of men and 
women." 

For further information on matters 
discussed in this document please ap- 
ply to 

PAYSON SMITH, Auburn, 

Pres. State S. I. L. M. 

KATE MACDONALD, Machias, 

Sec. State S. I. L. M. 



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